BUSINESS IS BUSINESS - DVD

The debut feature from controversial director Paul Verhoeven ('Basic Instinct', 'Starship Troopers') is a sex comedy set in Amsterdam's red light district. Prostitute Blonde Greet lives a life which puts her in daily contact with the bizarre and perverse, and it seems that there is nothing in life that could shock or surprise her. But then the unflappable Blonde falls in love and finds that's when the craziness really begins.

A bawdy, though sympathetic look at the lives of two Amsterdam prostitutes, 1971’s Business is Business was the film debut of Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who would later graduate to the Hollywood mainstream with films like Total Recall and Basic Instinct.

Starring Ronnie Biermann as Greet, a worldly wise prostitute who, in between gratifying the often bizarre needs and fantasies of her bourgeois clients, is decently protective of her neighbour and friend in the trade, the busty, younger Nell of whose relationship with an abusive leech (Bernard Droog) she disapproves. Finally, she decides they must both break out of their decreasingly fulfilling lives and seek out matrimonial stability.

An amiable if slightly aimless movie, based on the writings of Albert Moll, Business is Business probably seemed like an authentic depiction of the Amsterdam demi-monde in its day. Today, its kinky peccadilloes look rather quaint in comparison with, say, Nick Broomfield’s Fetishes. The breezily kitsch soundtrack is redolent of a more innocent age overall. However, both Biermann and Sylvia De Leur forcefully resist any of the dollybird clichés of the era in their strong characters.--David Stubbs

On the DVD: Business is Business on disc can be viewed with or without English subtitles. Extras are disappointing with only a Verhoeven, Biermann and De Leur filmography and film notes from David Parkinson, along with a few World cinema trailers and the film’s original trailer. The image resolution is average for a 1971 film and the Dolby digital soundtrack enhances the grunts and groans.--Nikki Disney